Obama must lead on climate change

In your editorial on Doha's failure ("Global climate talks stall — again," Dec. 11), you wrote: "The people who went to the polls last month knew which candidate favored stronger action in this arena and voted for him." We voted for President Barack Obama to set sane energy policies, rational environmental policies and logical fiscal policies. Until the House is ready to present him with the sensible fiscal legislation he wants, President Obama should ignore fiscal issues and focus on educating the public on the energy and environmental legislation needed to slow climate change.

The president should hold a summit on climate change to discuss ending oil and gas tax subsidies, enacting a carbon tax, restricting new investments in fossil fuel power plants, terminating consideration of the Keystone XL and Enbridge pipelines, developing better and more economical electric automobiles, prohibiting fracking in the continental U.S., and setting a timeline by which all U.S. fossil fuel plants will be off-line.

Americans must call the White House regularly (202-456-1111) to ask Mr. Obama to continue his efforts against climate change. Climate change legislation must be enacted during his second term of office if we are to slow this costly threat.